@Jazzed, @armoured, and @Kaibigan, thanks again, folks!
To update regarding the certified true copy issue: We managed to get a certified true copy of my spouse's birth certificate from the Consulate General of Mexico here in Vancouver. All we had to do was make an appointment 3 days ahead and pay $21 in cash for the service. My spouse went and picked it up with no issues.
Additional question:
- Now that we have a certified true copy in Spanish, we need to get it translated to English or French. It's noted that the translator will need to stamp both the translated copy, and a certified copy. We've phoned around to all the translation services out there, and none is willing to have us mail in the physical certified true copy to be translated and stamped. They say to submit a scanned copy online. Whilst we can do this, we are inherently making a non-certified copy by scanning it. Will this copy need to be certified by a notary public again once the translation is done and the scanned copy is stamped by the translator to certify that it matches with our original certified true copy we got from the consulate?
This is such a headache (and I apologise for another dense forest of a paragraph above but I hope it makes sense); we just don't want to risk having the application sent back as incomplete due to some stupid bureaucratic red tapes.
Thank you in advance!
Original post from me below:
To update regarding the certified true copy issue: We managed to get a certified true copy of my spouse's birth certificate from the Consulate General of Mexico here in Vancouver. All we had to do was make an appointment 3 days ahead and pay $21 in cash for the service. My spouse went and picked it up with no issues.
Additional question:
- Now that we have a certified true copy in Spanish, we need to get it translated to English or French. It's noted that the translator will need to stamp both the translated copy, and a certified copy. We've phoned around to all the translation services out there, and none is willing to have us mail in the physical certified true copy to be translated and stamped. They say to submit a scanned copy online. Whilst we can do this, we are inherently making a non-certified copy by scanning it. Will this copy need to be certified by a notary public again once the translation is done and the scanned copy is stamped by the translator to certify that it matches with our original certified true copy we got from the consulate?
This is such a headache (and I apologise for another dense forest of a paragraph above but I hope it makes sense); we just don't want to risk having the application sent back as incomplete due to some stupid bureaucratic red tapes.
Thank you in advance!
Original post from me below:
Hi guys, hope everyone's having a lovely evening!
I (current PR) am sponsoring my wife (Mexican) via the inland spousal sponsorship application. We have a few questions and doubts, hoping any kind souls who've had experience with this process can help out:
My wife has her original birth certificate here with her in Canada along with her current passport. We were initially under the impression that we just had to get them translated by a certified translator, and include a photocopy of the original and the certified translated copy in the package. We later found out that the photocopy of the originals need to be <fancy-pants>government-certified true copies</fancy-pants> as stated above.
- Background: Under the Country specific requirements, it's noted as followed:
- Mexico – Instruction(s) for documents
- "Official documents issued by this country must be government-certified true copies (copies certified as authentic by the issuing governmental authority, signed and sealed)."
- Questions:
- What are the documents that you need to get government-certified true copies of?
- Birth certificate and passport? Anything else?
- How did you do get the government-certified true copies from inside Canada?
- Did you visit the local Mexican (or your respective country) embassy?
- Is the process different and separated for the birth certificate and the passport?
- Please kindly outline a step-by-step process.
- If you had to return to Mexico or your respective country to get these certified copies from the "issuing governmental authority", please kindly share the process.
As a veteran of this forum, I trust that there are people who've had the same questions and experience and are able to help. I combed through Google, this forum, reddit, etc., but was not able to find any clear answers. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance!